Lexical variation

The use of happen here meaning ‘perhaps’ or ‘maybe’ is an example of lexical variation — differences in vocabulary. It probably locates the speaker somewhere in an area centred on the Pennines: Yorkshire or Lancashire or adjacent areas of the East Midlands. The popular image of dialect speech tends to focus almost exclusively on dialect vocabulary and although there was at one time greater regional variation in vocabulary across the UK, there remains a great deal of lexical diversity. This is demonstrated, for instance, by the variety of words used for bread roll in different parts of the country. If you live in Lancashire you might buy a barm cake, whilst people from Leeds would ask for a bread cake. At a baker’s in Derby you might be offered a cob and on a visit to Coventry you might eat a batch, although each of these words refers pretty much to the same thing.

The Word Map

Observing Lexical Variation

All languages change over time and vary according to place and social setting. We can observe lexical variation - differences in words and phrases - by comparing the way English is spoken in different places and among different social groups. Despite the belief that dialect words are no longer very widely used, there remains a great deal of lexical diversity in the UK. This is demonstrated, for instance, by the variety of words used for 'bread roll' in different parts of the country. If you live in Lancashire you might buy a barm cake, whilst people over The Pennines in Leeds would probably ask for a bread cake. At a baker’s in Derby you might be offered a cob and on a visit to Coventry you might eat a batch, although each of these words refers pretty much to the same item.

Listen to these extracts of speakers using regionally specific vocabulary:

meak, didle & crome:

another skill, uh, when we used to clean the dykes out all by hand with the old meak and the old didle and crome — that‘s all lugging

Commentary

Agriculture and traditional industry, such as mining, once provided the English language with a rich stock of dialect vocabulary. Farming, for instance, is by its nature dictated by the local landscape and agricultural practice differs accordingly across the country. Until relatively recently, local breeds of livestock and traditional farm practices spawned their own localised vocabulary, while hand-held implements for manual labour were generally locally made and thus given different names in different parts of the country. Due to the widespread mechanisation of farms and automation of heavy industry, many of these words are now no longer as widely used, as either the objects to which they refer have become obsolete or the practice has become an anachronism. Like the implements themselves, the words have become collectors' items or museum pieces, but there remains a small number of people working in traditional industries or in rural communities, for whom these words remain part of daily vocabulary.

OED entry:

meak: Eng. regional (chiefly E. Anglian) implement with a long handle and crooked iron or blade used to pull up or cut down peas, bracken, reeds, etc. Also noted in SED fieldwork in Garboldisham, Norfolk.

didle: (local) sharp triangular spade, used for clearing out ditches. EDD cites usage in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex and also noted in SED fieldwork in Gooderstone, Norfolk.

crome: (local) hook or crook; esp. a stick with a hook at the end of it to draw weeds out of ditches. EDD cites usage in Norfolk and Essex and noted in SED fieldwork in several sites across East Anglia.

peevers

Commentary

Traditional children‘s games and songs are a rich source of lexical variety, as the playground is full of young speakers who spend a great deal of time together and therefore develop a common vocabulary. These groups often perpetuate the names and phrases used in games passed down several generations. Even the simplest game of chase has a number of different names according to where you are in the UK – it, tig, tag or tiggy. ‘Truce terms’ – the practice of saying a word or phrase while crossing your fingers to indicate you are briefly withdrawing from a game – also have a number of regional alternatives including barley, scribs, fainites, pax, skinchies, cross keys and full stop.

OED entry

peever: (Scotland) stone, piece of pottery, etc., used in the game of hopscotch; also the game of hopscotch itself (freq. in pl., with sing. concord). EDD cites usage throughout Scotland and research by Peter and Iona Opie in the 1950s and 1960s unearthed an enormous range of regional names for hopscotch, including peevers, pallie, beds, beddy, hoppy-beds, hecky, hitchy-bay, hitchy-dabber and hitchy-pot. Listen to the recordings featured on this site in Leeds and Dalmellington for other examples of children‘s games.

Visit the Collect Britain site for further examples in the recordings from Thornhill, Great Dalby and Worsthorne.

nain

I remember my nain – when I was about four – she couldn‘t speak a worl, word of English, always Welsh, Welsh, Welsh

Commentary

Kinship terms and words of endearment for members of the family still show a good deal of regional variation within the UK. The words we use when addressing our parents and grandparents vary both regionally and socially, as demonstrated by the use of mam for mother in Wales and northern England, mom in the Midlands and mum in the south, with mother often used by members of the upper middle classes everywhere. Interestingly the word nanny is used by most of us to indicate a female grandparent, but in upper middle class circles it might refer to a live-in child carer.

Visit the Collect Britain site for further examples of local words for ‘grandmother’ in the recordings from Sunderland, Hartlepool, Carlisle, Sale, Leeds, Cudworth, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham and Great Malvern

mistall

and we‘d to get up and go down in – in wintertime – go down into the mistall we called it

Commentary

Agriculture and traditional industry, such as mining, once provided the English language with a rich stock of dialect vocabulary. Until relatively recently farm buildings were made of local construction materials and designed to suit local farm practice. They were thus given different names in different parts of the country. Due to the widespread adoption of modern farming methods, many of these buildings are now obsolete and have been replaced by more standard constructions, although in rural communities many of the original words are still applied to their modern counterparts.

Listen to the longer recording featured on this site in Stannington for other examples of local words for ‘cowshed’.

Visit the Collect Britain site for further examples in the recordings from Haltwhistle, Allendale, Brigham, Great Strickland, Heptonstall, Marshside, Farndon, Kilkhampton, Walsden, Fulstone, Waterfoot and Barrow-in-Furness.

England

Northumberland so down below it, you know, as you're ganning up the bank - gan over the little bridge, the church is on the right - there's a house stands there, or is it two houses, is that two cottages

no, well, we just had, generally we had the same every week, you know - Monday it were cold meat, you know, everybody has cold meat at Monday haven't they, but, uh, you know, we, we weren't clammed or aught like that

my nana and grandad live in Wythenshawe, ehm, and we're really close to them, so we used to go and visit them a lot Warrington and, uh, a local farmer had this key, you see, so any road they did get it and they went into it and they, they got this, uhm, smallholding

the garth-man used to suckle the calves before breakfast and we used to get our breakfast and then go out onto the A15 side and take about twenty, twenty-five cows and tent those and letting them eat, eat on the roadside

he had to hold it as he could see where he was clenching the nails and that, you know Cleehill, Shropshire cause mother made a lot of home, uh, made jam - not, not like this boughten tack - proper home-made jam, ah, it was lovely

and the carter'd have three more horses ready to go on, he would take them of; then he'd take them home, take their collars off, take all their harness off and, uh, put them in the stable and brush their sh, shoulders and put the collars on the s, tallet steps to dry

and I noticed on the television the other day there was a chap on there - down at, I think, he was on The Somerset Levels - he was bobbing and patting, but I, to be honest I think he was a bit of a buller, I don't know

I can see my father now, he and the workmen, having, well we called them evils, but they're forks, digging them up and throwing them out in ranks as they call it and then, we children had to come along with baskets and, uh, pick them up, sort them out and put them in bags

he used to go round, doing all the cutting in the woods, making hurdles and broaches and pea-sticks - all that sort of thing Bacton, Suffolk Mondays was wash-day and, uhm, dad had to bring the faggots up to heat the copper, because we had a big, brick copper with a wooden lid

chaps, you know, they just travelled round the village from one farm to the other, uhm, haps they'd have two or three years at one and something upset them and, uh, they'd go to the next farmer and get a job and, uh, they'd travel all round the district, haps the next village as well

it was quite difficult, because tosh means 'bath' and, and flicks is 'lights out' and, and the only one that I can actually think of off the top of my head is bluer, which is our blue blazer that we wear

where the rest of the summer was spent chopping them up into little firewood sticks, lighting sticks, uh, always known as nicky wood - nicky wood because they were tied up into nickies - a nicky was a little bundle like that

it didnae look like peat or smell like peat; it just, just kind of sludge, ken, it wasnae flapping about like semi-liquid; it was stationary - the, this'd mebbe be an hour or two mebbe after the initial inrush so everything was stationary